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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

Alfonso Cuarón's new film "Gravity" (Warner Bros. Pictures) stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as shuttle astronauts. In the teaser trailer released on Thursday (May 9), both actors' characters can be seen wearing a number of mission patches.

The U.S. spacesuits feature a mission patch on the astronauts' chests and another emblem on their right arms.

There is also a Russian pressure suit with its own set of patches.

As "Gravity" nears its Oct. 4 release, perhaps we'll get a better look at the emblems created for the film.

Robert Pearlman

So, from the three new clips released this week, here is the closest and clearest view of the movie's space shuttle mission patch:

You can't have a spaceflight without a mission patch, even if the expedition is fictional.

Warning: The following contains minor spoilers.

In "Gravity," director Alfonso Cuarón's new movie about astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) stranded on a spacewalk, the attention paid to mission patches — of which there are several different designs in the film — exemplifies the level of detail that the filmmakers pursued when recreating the look of a real spaceflight.

The film's visual effects, production and costume design teams researched real space hardware to produce faithful digital (and sometimes physical) recreations of the space shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station, Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and more. The same attention was paid to the astronauts' spacesuits.

But they didn't stop there...

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Two questions: On at least the real US spacesuits, wouldn't the emblem be screened onto Beta cloth, instead of using an embroidered emblem? And did the cast and crew get a presentation set of the patches used in the film?

Robert Pearlman

Yes to the first (though Orthofabric rather than Beta cloth), unknown to the second.

(On edit: Sandra Bullock mentioned to me she had not received anything from the movie, so I guess that would rule out mission patches.)

noroxine

In the film, the Russian suit look like a mix between a Sokol and a Strizh (same zip and color configuration, glove looks like real one from Strizh).

Mirror on the right hand is attached with velcro, which is not the standard configuration, this is only an elastic.

What is strange is that those suits (Sokol and Strizh) are not for EVA!

The helmet on Russian suit is definitively not the original one since Russia never adopted the bubble glass version. Great idea... but not real.

Robert Pearlman

The changes to the Russian suit design were for combination of reasons, but from a behind-the-scenes perspective, lighting and artistic license were considerations. According to costume designer Jany Temime:

We dyed it a beige with a hint of green. We went through a long process to find that precise color to reflect the light properly. We adapted it to give it a more feminine silhouette and added two zippers in the front, which is a change to the original.

Based on Temime's comments, I suspect they started with an Orlan and worked backwards to arrive at something closer to a Sokol.

Given what happens in the film, the merging of the two suits was also likely driven by a plot simplification.

Jay Chladek

The patches are pretty easy to make out in the film. Glad to see them up close in the article though. It might have made for a pretty bizarre sight gag though if they threw in "The Big Bang Theory" patch as an easter egg inside the ISS.

I also think I know who "Thomas" is on the shuttle mission patch. Andy Thomas was given a technical advisor credit in the film.

Robert Pearlman

Having seen the film again last night, I can amend the mission patches article with one additional tidibit.